Paris ? Serena Williams was impressed by Annika Sorenstam’s foray onto the PGA Tour. The No. 1 women’s tennis player has no desire to play against men, though.

“I think she did great,” Williams said Sunday. “I really wanted her to do even better. But I think she did really, really well.”

Williams, who begins defense of her French Open title today, added that Sorenstam proved “she can hang up there. It’s cool she was able to do that.”

Williams has been as dominant on the WTA Tour as Sorenstam is on the LPGA Tour, winning tennis’ last four Grand Slam tournaments and opening 2003 with 21 consecutive match victories.

At the Colonial tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, this week, Sorenstam became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event in 58 years. The Swede had creditable rounds of 71-74 but missed the cut.

“I’m here to play female tennis,” she said. “I’ve never been involved in men’s tennis.”

Asked how she thought she would do if tempted to play against men, Williams smiled and delivered a quick response: “I wouldn’t be tempted.”

As far as the men, Pete Sampras never won the French Open. Neither did John McEnroe or Stefan Edberg. Jimmy Connors and Boris Becker didn’t reach a final at Roland Garros.

All had plenty of success elsewhere, of course: a total of 37 Grand Slam titles.

On the other hand, the list of French Open champions does include such one-hit wonders as Michael Chang (1989), Andres Gomez (1990) and Thomas Muster (1995).

Albert Costa might be destined to join the group of men with one major triumph, but he made clear Sunday that’s OK with him as he prepares to defend his French Open title.

“I’m not feeling the pressure,” the Spaniard said.

Costa put the number of contenders at about 20 and started rattling off a veritable “Who’s Who” of tennis.

“A lot of players can win here. If I have to choose two, I will choose Ferrero and Moya,” he said. “There are a lot of players that can do really good on clay. Argentines are very good. The Spanish are really good. There are some others, like Agassi, Kuerten.”

Those he mentioned do have strong credentials:

No. 3-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero reached last year’s final and has gone 21-2 on clay in 2003, with titles at Monte Carlo and Valencia.

No. 4 Carlos Moya is the only other man with two clay titles this year, and he won the 1998 French Open (his lone major title, by the way).

No. 15 Gustavo Kuerten is a three-time champion at Roland Garros (and never has been past the quarterfinals at another major).

Meanwhile, No. 2 Andre Agassi counts the 1999 French Open among his eight career Grand Slam titles, including this year’s Australian Open. At 33, he also happens to be the oldest player in the 128-man field. There are others in the mix, too, such as top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt or No. 5 Roger Federer.